Storytelling by Chinese Heritage Language Learners Presented by Chang Pu, PhD Berry College SLRF 2015

Overview Background Research Questions The Study Findings Discussions Conclusion and Implications Reference

Background Heritage language learner is “a student of a language who is raised in a home where a non-English language is spoken, who speaks or merely understands the language, and who is to some degree bilingual in English and the heritage language” (Valdés, 2000, p. 1) Heritage language learners have usually acquired basic communication skills in their heritage languages through daily conversations with their family members (Lynch, 2003), which become an advantage that HL learners can bring to their HL classroom. Speaking is seldom included in the CHL curriculum and classroom practices (Pu, 2010), although oral language development is strongly associated with reading comprehension and writing (Lesaux & Geva, 2006). Few studies have investigated heritage language learners’ speaking skills in formal and academic-like oral tasks (e.g., oral presentation, story retelling).

Research Questions  How did four Chinese American children perform story-telling in English?  How did four Chinese American children perform story-telling in Chinese?

The Study Participants: Two Chinese American boys (Eric 8 and Xing 9) and two Chinese American girls (May 8 and Lan 9) who were attending the same CHL school on Sundays and taught by the same CHL teacher. They all attend the same public school.

Story-telling: A Wordless story Instruction: Ask a student to take time to read the pictures. Once the student is ready, ask the student: “ 你能给 我讲讲这个故事 吗？ ” or “Can you tell me what the story is?” Five plot line components identified from the wordless picture story : 1. The main protagonist finds a fake mane. 2. The main protagonist runs outside the house, carrying the fake mane. 3. The main protagonist wears the fake mane on his head. 4. The main protagonist runs to the top of the cliff. 5. The main protagonist imitates the secondary protagonist.

Data Collection and Analysis Participants were asked individually and independently to tell the story in Chinese first and then in English. All story-telling events were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Content-based narrative analysis: coherence (i.e., their ability to organize the story through plot line) (Berman & Slobin, 1994), text length (i.e., the number of clauses) (Berman & Slobin, 1994), and functions of language (e.g., express opinions/feelings, give voice to the imagination, convey information ) (Halliday, 1975). I and another RA scored the focal students’ narratives: one point for explicit mention of each of 6 plot line components critical to the story for a total of 6 possible points (Berman, 1988).

Findings Eric: Eric told a more complete and coherent story in English than in Chinese. Eric’s English narrative has sentences that give voice to his imagination. Sentences in his Chinese narrative only serve as the function of conveying information.

Lan Lan produced a longer text in English than in Chinese. Although Lan’s English narrative has more plot line components than her Chinese one, her narratives in both English and Chinese do not seem very complete. Lan’s English narrative contains diverse functions.

Xing Xing’s English narrative has a more complete and coherent story compared to his Chinese narrative. The language used in his English narrative also has more functions.

May May’s English narrative has more sentences that give voice to the imagination and her opinion than the Chinese narrative does, although her narratives contain similar plots. _____

In Summary, All participants produced a longer and detailed text in English. Except May, all had a more complete story in English than in Chinese. They used a story starter in their English narrative, but not in the Chinese one. In addition to the sentences used to convey information explicitly shown in the pictures, participants’ English narratives also gave voice to their imagination and opinions. Their Chinese narratives only limited to plain descriptions. Although the focal CHL students spoke Chinese with their parents at home, their command of the Chinese oral skills was probably limited to conveying the basic information during daily social interactions.

Discussion The overlooked language development: Speaking The pedagogical purposes of the Zhōng Wén ( 中文 ) textbook series used in the CHL school include equipping students with Mandarin Chinese listening, speaking, reading and writing skills and introducing Chinese culture so as to build a strong base for further Chinese language and culture learning. But, speaking skill is not explicitly practiced/developed in any of the accompanied exercises. CHL instructions focus on correct pronunciation. Orality and literacy is seen as a continuum (Hornberger, 2003). Revisiting the purpose of CHL maintenance. CHL schools can help students make the transition from using oral home language styles to a more literate school language in a formal context.

Conclusion and Implication CHL learners should strive to expand their bilingual range of linguistic abilities and communicative strategies in either language, and to develop literacy skills in a variety of genres by building on literacy skills of the stronger language. Sociolinguisitically informed approach : build upon HL learners’ previous knowledge and existing abilities, and develop HL speaking skills in varied social contexts (including the formal academic setting): guiding HL learners to understand different language use shaped by sociolinguistic variables (e.g., audience). HL teacher preparation and professional development

References Berman, R. A., & Slobin, D. I. (Eds.). (1994). Relating events in narrative: A crosslinguistic developmental study. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers. Halliday, M. (1975). Learning how to mean: Explorations in the development of language. London: Edward Arnold. Hornberger, N. (Ed.). (2003). Continua of biliteracy: An ecological framework for educational policy, research, and practice in multilingual settings. Tonawanda, NY: Multilingual Matters Ltd. Lynch, A. (2003). The relationship between second and heritage language acquisition: Notes on research and theory building. The Heritage Language Journal, 1(1). Retrieved September 25, 2007, from Pu, C. (2010). The influence of public and heritage language schools on Chinese American children’s biliteracy development. Bilingual Research Journal, 33(2), Valdés, G. (2000). Introduction. In N. Anderson (Ed.), Spanish for native speakers: AATSP professional development series handbook for teachers K-16 (pp. 1-20). Orlando, FL: Harcourt College.